پنجشنبه، اسفند ۱۰، ۱۳۹۱

VOA: Rumors and Realities

There are so many rumors about
Voice of America (VOA) and discerning the truth is very difficult. VOA is a news
agency that was formed at the time of World War II and its goal was to provide
accurate news and promote democratic values for its listeners in the countries
that were under the fascist rule. About 70 years have passed since those days.
The news that were available to the people in countries under dictatorship have
changed. For example, the amount and content of news in the Soviet Union in the
past or today in Communist China is not the same as what was available in
Hilter's Germany. Or the news and analysis available in the press of Islamic
Republic of Iran's Radio, TV and on the internal Internet is different from the
news that were available 70 years ago in the dictatorial countries. This is why
VOA cannot work the same way as ordinary news agencies that work in various
countries and puts the news that are not available in the targeted countries in
its focus which is not necessarily the same for all countries.

Considering the above reality
the strategy of the Persian Service of VOA is defined. In the Charter of VOA it
is said that accurate and balanced reporting in addition to promoting democratic
values is the duty of this media; but, for the TV viewers, web readers and radio
listeners who have access to a lot of news through the official news sources of
Iran in this Information Age, the need is to focus on those news that are not
available to them. Therefore, not only the news but also the analysis that is offered
on VOA are works that are not broadcasted in the Iranian press, or else there
would be no need for the democratic countries to help with news broadcasting for
Iranians. This is why many areas for which news broadcasting in their language
existed in the past, with the democratic changes and the growth of independent
media in those regions, the programs of VOA have ceased broadcasting.

Basically there are two
erroneous viewpoints about the strategy of Voice of America expressed in the
Iran-related circles abroad:

1. The first viewpoint is
brought up by those who believe the people inside Iran need the kind of news and
programs that are desired by the Iranian immigrants. As it has been discussed
the needs of Iranian immigrants is different from the needs of Iranians inside
Iran (1). In the recent years when the number of Iranian immigrants have
increased, the media that have the immigrants in their focus have grown abroad
and the publishers of such media are well known. Basically immigrants want to
live better in the United States and other countries where they have immigrated
to and they also want better relations between the U.S. and Iran regardless of
whether Iran's political regime is to their liking or not, because they want to
be able to travel easily to Iran and comfortably have trade relations with their
home country. Of course, just like many Iranian exiles they are worried about
the prospects of war with Iran although emphasizing on human rights conditions
for the relations of the two countries will not cause a war. Nonetheless,
seeking human rights conditions for the establishing of relations between the
two countries is not that important for the immigrants. This does not mean that
the immigrants support dictatorship in Iran and have no interest in observation
of human rights in Iran, but the priority for the immigrants is to improve their
own life in the U.S. and other countries and one cannot blame them for that.

At any rates, with the increase
in the number of immigrants in the U.S. the political and ideological trends
that express the interests of this group of Iranians try to influence the
programs of VOA. For example, it is claimed that unbiased and balanced
journalism means to deliver an apolitical news content or not to relay the kind
of news that may displease the pressure groups. These impressions are totally
erroneous. Reporters generally are very informed people and if a reporter has no
political tendencies it shows that s/he not much aware. If we know a reporter is
pro-monarchy and we listen to her report, we can better recognize if her report
is scientific journalism or not. Those who try to show reporters of a media
outlet have no political position to assume their reports as unbiased are
deceiving themselves and others. Being unbiased does not mean a reporter or
analyst is not pro-monarchy or pro-mojahedin or pro-reformists. The conscious
presence of such reporters and analysts, if they are informed, would be a
guarantee to get access to the kind of news that are really newsworthy. In fact,
those who go to radio, TV and web sites of media like VOA are looking for these
kinds of news and analysis and they are smart enough to make their own judgment
to evaluate such reports and do not need a censorship authority to prevent
offending different groups, this is not a kindergarten.

2. The second erroneous
viewpoint about the media strategy comes from some of the Iranian supporters of
U.S. neocons. They think VOA has to make a revolution in Iran and like to sit in
this media's TV studios and issue revolutionary directives. For example, they
think if the relations with Iran is good, such permission is not given to them
whereas if the relations are bad, they can get such permission from VOA. Thus they think
Islamic Republic lobbyists are their barrier to this goal, which according to
them have infiltrated VOA. Their mistake is that they are mistaking VOA for a
political party. VOA reporters just like any other citizens of a free country can
be supporters or members of any political party but their news work is to offer
scientific journalism and promoting democracy within the VOA Charter which has
clearly defined it. In other words, even at the time of the war of Allies with
Fascist Germany the duty of VOA was delivering the news, and not to be a replacement for
a political party or to execute guerrilla warfare action against Hitler.

Let's take a look at the rumors
that have been repeated about Ali Sajjadi, the former VOA Senior Managing
Editor. Some of the neocons have written that Mr. Sajjadi's father is one of
those mollahs who work for Iran's Supreme Leader and they have also fabricated a
story about the reporting of the death of Neda Agha Soltan as if Ali Sajjadi had
blocked the announcement of that news and as if this is another reason that he
is according to them an "agent of Islamic Republic." As far as Mr. Sajjadi's
father I really do not know why these people do not have any shame to attack the
family of someone whose views they oppose and this way they have exceeded
Islamic Republic of Iran. I beg them to prove their claims so that the one who lies
to be revealed. And as far as the news about Neda's death, Mr. Sajjadi had done his
work according to the principles of journalism basing his report on two
independent sources and there was nothing wrong with his work and all the
accusations are total lie. But the reality about the work of Mr. Sajjadi is
something else.

Ali Sajjadi is one of the most
knowledgeable editors that not only I have met in the last 8 years at VOA but he is one of
the most knowledgeable editors I have ever seen in all my life. Not only he is a very
capable and hardworking individual but when he was the chief editor and in
charge of VOA news, the most accurate news and topics that were really
newsworthy would broadcast on VOA TV. When two years ago this responsibility was
passed on to someone else, the quality of the news of VOA TV was dropped although
many of the knowledgeable reporters continued to deliver quality work. But
why that division was taken away from Mr. Sajjadi? The reason was that he was
too strict. Mr. Sajjadi is very knowledgeable and very hardworking and he feels
so much responsibility that he would not allow even a minor worthless work to
pass through the pipes. This is why he is very strict that the people who work
for him sometimes would not even find time to recuperate and may work for years
without finding time to do even a little personal study. In such conditions,
those whose strength for work is not much or their knowledge is low cannot
continue and generally these people have more time to spread rumors and say
these kind of words instead of spending time in their free time to study and
work harder and since they neither spend time to do research nor do they have
the knowledge to do anything worthwhile, they spend their efforts to
destroy the image of Mr. Ali Sajjadi by lies and rumors.

In one of the sites of Iranian
immigrants in the US it is claimed that the person who occupied the place of Mr.
Sajjadi for a year and a half was a strong journalist. But how could that be true?
That individual when reporting on the achievements of the first decade of 21st
Century, at the year 2009, forgot even to mention Iran's Green Movement (2)!

Also when it is claimed that
person has taught journalism to all in the VOA, that is another surprise!
Journalism especially in a political news organization is about knowledge of
politics, economy and history of Iran and the world, not just spelling and writing
style which copy editors work to improve. In this age of the Internet, the works
of news and analysis of different individuals are accessible to the public. The readers can
read the writings of different individuals and judge their news and theoretical
value and then evaluate if the individual with that much political knowledge can
claim to be an experienced editor for this kind of news work. Media outlets such
as VOA should not be seen as equal to the media of Iranian immigrants abroad.
They each have their own duty and need to respect each other*.

Also when Mr. Sajjadi was
managing editor of VOA, he cooperated will all political lines, from Neocons to
Reformists, from Monarchists to Reformers, from Leftists to National Front. And
they all participated in VOA TV programs but his criteria was to choose the
individuals who had something to say and he had the knowledge to recognize it.
Just filling the programs' time with productions that may be of interest to
Iranian immigrants but have nothing to offer to Iranians inside Iran was not the
goal. Most of the Iranian publications abroad especially those in English are
useful for Iranian immigrants and their content is not of much value for
Iranians inside Iran. When Mr. Sajjadi was the managing editor of VOA the
content of this media outlet did not comprise of such news. Also it is true that
entertainment programs are also needed for a TV media but again it is important
to note that what is needed to be offered are the type of programs that are not
accessible inside Iran.

Finally I should note that I have
not had any contact with Mr. Sajjadi for months and the reason I wrote all these
lines is because I saw comments below my articles in Iranglobal site where Ali
Sajjadi was insulted and I was asked why I do not write about his role in VOA. I
thought maybe some people spread all these rumors about him because of being
uninformed and this is why I wrote these explanations. Of course, thousand words
of mine are not a cure for those who do the disinformation purposefully, but
maybe those who spread the rumors unconsciously against this respectable Iranian
individual whose heart beats for Iran would stop to continue their attacks.